What do you think?
Rate this book
The Universe of Xuya #Scattered Along the River of Hea
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 64, January 2012
FICTION
"Scattered Along the River of Heaven" by Aliette de Bodard
"What Everyone Remembers" by Rahul Kanakia
"All the Painted Stars" by Gwendolyn Clare
NON-FICTION
"The Future Sounds of Yesterday: A Sequence of Synthesizers in Science Fiction" by Christopher Bahn
"Things You Will Never Understand: A Conversation with Robert Jackson Bennett" by Jeremy L. C. Jones
"2011 Reader's Poll" by Neil Clarke
"Scattered Along the River of Heaven" by Aliette de Bodard
"What Everyone Remembers" by Rahul Kanakia
"All the Painted Stars" by Gwendolyn Clare
NON-FICTION
"The Future Sounds of Yesterday: A Sequence of Synthesizers in Science Fiction" by Christopher Bahn
"Things You Will Never Understand: A Conversation with Robert Jackson Bennett" by Jeremy L. C. Jones
"2011 Reader's Poll" by Neil Clarke
66 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
About the author
Neil Clarke
374 books377 followersNeil Clarke is best known as the editor and publisher of the Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning
Clarkesworld Magazine.
Launched in October 2006, the online magazine has been a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine four times (winning three times), the World Fantasy Award four times (winning once), and the British Fantasy Award once (winning once). Neil is also a ten-time finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form (winning once in 2022), three-time winner of the Chesley Award for Best Art Director, and a recipient of the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. In the fifteen years since Clarkesworld Magazine launched, numerous stories that he has published have been nominated for or won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Locus, BSFA, Shirley Jackson, WSFA Small Press, and Stoker Awards.
Additionally, Neil edits Forever —a digital-only, reprint science fiction magazine he launched in 2015. His anthologies include: Upgraded, Galactic Empires, Touchable Unreality, More Human than Human, The Final Frontier, Not One of Us, The Eagle has Landed, , and the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. His next anthology, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Seven will published in early 2023.
He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.
Additionally, Neil edits Forever —a digital-only, reprint science fiction magazine he launched in 2015. His anthologies include: Upgraded, Galactic Empires, Touchable Unreality, More Human than Human, The Final Frontier, Not One of Us, The Eagle has Landed, , and the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. His next anthology, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Seven will published in early 2023.
He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 30, 2024
For Aliette de Bodard's "Scattered Along the River of Heaven," a story of revolution, history, family, and the yawning cultural/experiential gap between generations during periods of social unrest. Also borrowed/adapted Tang poetry and bots!
August 6, 2013
Overall: 3.5 Stars
A solid issue. The only stand out was de Bodard's story, but the rest are good. No duds or things that made me rage-y.
Favorite: "Scattered Along the River of Heaven" by Aliette de Bodard
Fiction
"Scattered Along the River of Heaven" by Aliette de Bodard
4.5 Stars
"Scattered Along the River of Heaven" is the story of a revolutionary's rise and fall from power and also the story of her estranged family. I think I should remove the words "heartbreaking" and "beautiful" from my vocabulary when speaking about de Bodard's work because everything she writes is both. She has a painful understanding of how revolutions (and the concept of history written by winners) works. The granddaughter not knowing her own grandmother adds an emotional undercurrent, made all the more powerful by the Chinese ideals of filial piety and honoring ancestors. I docked a half star because some of the Chinese terms confused me (e.g. Mheng is used to refer to the oppressed people and High Mheng is the language used by the oppressors). My own ignorance of Chinese language and culture probably played did not help the confusion. Overall, de Bodard is a different voice in the sci-fi world and one that deserves to be heard.
"What Everyone Remembers" by Rahul Kanakia
3.5 Stars
A unique take on the belief cockroaches will survive a nuclear war. Some of the ideas argued in the story seemed familiar and typical for apocalyptic stories, but Eve's sweet voice and unknowingly sad life elevated the piece.
"All the Painted Stars" by Gwendolyn Clare
3.5 Stars
A mash-up of Alien/human contact from the perspective of the alien and a coming of age story, but Clare makes them work together into a harmonious story. The amount of world-building done was impressive. However, the story-arch seamed a little too...precious for lack of a better term. I don't think all sci-fi/fantasy has to be depressing and bleak, but this just seamed too pat. I think that may be more of my grumpiness than any actual reflection on the author or her story.
Non-fiction
"The Future Sounds of Yesterday: A Sequence of Synthesizers in Science Fiction" by Christopher Bahn
3 Stars
A brief history of the developing technology in music and how it related to sci-fi media (movies, television, etc). There really isn't any analysis besides "synthesizers sound futuristic!" and sometimes the history can be a bit dense, but it's interesting.
You can read the full magazine for free here! If you like what you read, support the magazine by buying a copy for your e-reader.
A solid issue. The only stand out was de Bodard's story, but the rest are good. No duds or things that made me rage-y.
Favorite: "Scattered Along the River of Heaven" by Aliette de Bodard
Fiction
"Scattered Along the River of Heaven" by Aliette de Bodard
4.5 Stars
"Scattered Along the River of Heaven" is the story of a revolutionary's rise and fall from power and also the story of her estranged family. I think I should remove the words "heartbreaking" and "beautiful" from my vocabulary when speaking about de Bodard's work because everything she writes is both. She has a painful understanding of how revolutions (and the concept of history written by winners) works. The granddaughter not knowing her own grandmother adds an emotional undercurrent, made all the more powerful by the Chinese ideals of filial piety and honoring ancestors. I docked a half star because some of the Chinese terms confused me (e.g. Mheng is used to refer to the oppressed people and High Mheng is the language used by the oppressors). My own ignorance of Chinese language and culture probably played did not help the confusion. Overall, de Bodard is a different voice in the sci-fi world and one that deserves to be heard.
"What Everyone Remembers" by Rahul Kanakia
3.5 Stars
A unique take on the belief cockroaches will survive a nuclear war. Some of the ideas argued in the story seemed familiar and typical for apocalyptic stories, but Eve's sweet voice and unknowingly sad life elevated the piece.
"All the Painted Stars" by Gwendolyn Clare
3.5 Stars
A mash-up of Alien/human contact from the perspective of the alien and a coming of age story, but Clare makes them work together into a harmonious story. The amount of world-building done was impressive. However, the story-arch seamed a little too...precious for lack of a better term. I don't think all sci-fi/fantasy has to be depressing and bleak, but this just seamed too pat. I think that may be more of my grumpiness than any actual reflection on the author or her story.
Non-fiction
"The Future Sounds of Yesterday: A Sequence of Synthesizers in Science Fiction" by Christopher Bahn
3 Stars
A brief history of the developing technology in music and how it related to sci-fi media (movies, television, etc). There really isn't any analysis besides "synthesizers sound futuristic!" and sometimes the history can be a bit dense, but it's interesting.
You can read the full magazine for free here! If you like what you read, support the magazine by buying a copy for your e-reader.
April 28, 2020
Free to read over at
Clarkesworld
.
This story reminds me of Butterfly, Falling at Dawn in the way people and cultures change and shift, with those who fight to maintain things, those who fight to rid things, those who adopt the new and those who refuse to. But unlike Butterfly, Falling at Dawn where we had an external power come to support those who wanted change within their own society, to free themselves from the tyranny of their own people; in Scattered Along the River of Heaven we have a post conflict situation where one society has freed itself violently from the slavery and tyranny imposed upon it by an external society.
Likewise, within that society there were slaves who wanted to maintain the status quo, as they had been granted privileged positions amongst the slaves: the masters deliberately creating a tier system ensuring that the privileged slaves would keep the under-privileged slaves in place by overseeing, snitching, reporting, etc.. However, once their enslavers had been overthrown these privileged slaves were either killed or exiled along with their masters, hated and despised by those of their own people that they kept downtrodden for their own comfort and importance.
It's also another one of those books by Aliette where a second reading is a must: at least it was for me. It's like i just couldn't see the overall picture until the last 10th or so of the story, where things become clear and fall into place, and then i was left hanging, needing to go back and read it all again with a much clearer idea of what it was i was reading. I think there's some important information that is missing from the beginning that you don't find until the end, but, doesn't matter. Or maybe it's like one of those poems that you have to keep going back to hoping to glean a little more meaning each time.
But yeah, good book, plenty to think about culturally and things.
Next up, Immersion .
This story reminds me of Butterfly, Falling at Dawn in the way people and cultures change and shift, with those who fight to maintain things, those who fight to rid things, those who adopt the new and those who refuse to. But unlike Butterfly, Falling at Dawn where we had an external power come to support those who wanted change within their own society, to free themselves from the tyranny of their own people; in Scattered Along the River of Heaven we have a post conflict situation where one society has freed itself violently from the slavery and tyranny imposed upon it by an external society.
Likewise, within that society there were slaves who wanted to maintain the status quo, as they had been granted privileged positions amongst the slaves: the masters deliberately creating a tier system ensuring that the privileged slaves would keep the under-privileged slaves in place by overseeing, snitching, reporting, etc.. However, once their enslavers had been overthrown these privileged slaves were either killed or exiled along with their masters, hated and despised by those of their own people that they kept downtrodden for their own comfort and importance.
It's also another one of those books by Aliette where a second reading is a must: at least it was for me. It's like i just couldn't see the overall picture until the last 10th or so of the story, where things become clear and fall into place, and then i was left hanging, needing to go back and read it all again with a much clearer idea of what it was i was reading. I think there's some important information that is missing from the beginning that you don't find until the end, but, doesn't matter. Or maybe it's like one of those poems that you have to keep going back to hoping to glean a little more meaning each time.
But yeah, good book, plenty to think about culturally and things.
Next up, Immersion .
August 18, 2015
This review is ONLY for the story "Scattered Along the River of Heaven" by Aliette de Bodard. I'm making my way through her uncollected Xuya stories & this one has no solo entry. I think that, although by the end, it hit with exactly the sort of bang you want from a well-written short story, this is my least favorite (so far) story by de Bodard and my least favorite of the Xuyan stories.
Like many of de Bodard's stories, this is a winding narrative, going back between two different POVs without really making the connection between them until the end...though, in the end, ha, this story is about connections never made, how quickly and irrevocably the knowledge and memories of our ancestors fall into the gaps of time and forgetfulness.
Like the later Xuya stories, it's hard to find the connective ligature to the earlier stories; the earlier stories are centered on Earth, whereas the later stories are in a universe that has spaceflight and interstellar colonization and I have yet to really find the story or stories that logically bridge that gap...which in its own way, also feeds back into the idea of this story.
My main complaint is that the gap between the two story POVs was too wide until too late in the story. The sections with Wen were slow and largely non-moving, so they made the story drag until their purpose became clear, but it was so late in the story that it's taken me longer to read this not-very-long story than any of the others. The ending is satisfying and heartbreaking enough that I can't say it wasn't worth reading (I'm coming to suspect there's very little--if anything--by de Bodard that's 'not worth it') but it was a bit of a slog.
Like many of de Bodard's stories, this is a winding narrative, going back between two different POVs without really making the connection between them until the end...though, in the end, ha, this story is about connections never made, how quickly and irrevocably the knowledge and memories of our ancestors fall into the gaps of time and forgetfulness.
Like the later Xuya stories, it's hard to find the connective ligature to the earlier stories; the earlier stories are centered on Earth, whereas the later stories are in a universe that has spaceflight and interstellar colonization and I have yet to really find the story or stories that logically bridge that gap...which in its own way, also feeds back into the idea of this story.
My main complaint is that the gap between the two story POVs was too wide until too late in the story. The sections with Wen were slow and largely non-moving, so they made the story drag until their purpose became clear, but it was so late in the story that it's taken me longer to read this not-very-long story than any of the others. The ending is satisfying and heartbreaking enough that I can't say it wasn't worth reading (I'm coming to suspect there's very little--if anything--by de Bodard that's 'not worth it') but it was a bit of a slog.
October 21, 2013
Scattered Along the River of Heaven - ****, a good story with a well-depicted non-Western future
What Everyone Remembers - ***, an ok story about a created roach-person to be the future of humanity. A bit of an odd story; the perspective worked, but the story was less compelling.
All the Painted Stars - ****, would have been better as a longer story, as it felt like the beginning of a larger story. Well told from the perspective of a very non-human alien.
The Future Sounds of Yesterday - ***, decently informative overview of sci fi and electronic music, although seemingly haphazard in what's included, especially towards the end.
What Everyone Remembers - ***, an ok story about a created roach-person to be the future of humanity. A bit of an odd story; the perspective worked, but the story was less compelling.
All the Painted Stars - ****, would have been better as a longer story, as it felt like the beginning of a larger story. Well told from the perspective of a very non-human alien.
The Future Sounds of Yesterday - ***, decently informative overview of sci fi and electronic music, although seemingly haphazard in what's included, especially towards the end.
December 17, 2017
Me ha gustado mucho la ambientación y los mensajes que pretende transmitir la autora con la historia. También me ha encantado el planteamiento de "la parte ci-fi" pero el relato en sí se me ha hecho demasiado corto. Leeré más relatos ambientados en este universo, seguro <3
July 23, 2021
Reread this in "Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight" -- and it enjoyed it more this second time. As with all her works feel like am between a story of science fiction and a mood poem.
Very good, even made more impact with the author's short description of writting the story.
Very good, even made more impact with the author's short description of writting the story.
May 25, 2018
Rating is for the WONDERful short story "All the Painted Stars" by Gwendolyn Clare.
November 1, 2017
It is a beautiful story
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews